A Creative Catch-Up

Well, it's the final week of our summer holidays here and it's pouring with rain. I've got a good few things I plan to get done this week as well as appointments, a bit of catching up with friends and, last but not least, some creative time. I started as I meant to go on this weekend with some time spent in my shed making things. Here's Miss Blossom who lives in the shed. She's spent the summer swathed in roses - very nice too.

I've managed to spend a couple of afternoons and mornings out there in sun and rain, and love it very much indeed. I did some jewellery-making the other day. It's such a pleasure to be able to spread out my stuff as much as I please and not to have to tidy everything away each time I finish.

I keep my bead mat and tools in a shallow tin so that nothing rolls away and I don't lose things. Here I was repairing D's necklace and making her some gemstone chip bracelets.

On another afternoon I also made some very simple amethyst and flourite earrings...

...and some haematite ones. I'll probably wear these for work.

Here's a little wire hare which I made a while ago. I twisted him from silver wire and gave him blue glass bead eyes. He's only tiny and sits on a pebble catching the sunshine.

I've also been doing a bit of crochet too. This is a mandala which I made to Lucy's design at the start of the summer. I put the colours of roses, sweet Williams and blue skies into it. I think that the last few rows went a bit awry and don't quite match the pattern, but I'm happy with it.

Recently I've been fidgety and restless and not able to get into my crochet. I've just not been feeling it - you know what I mean, don't you, dear reader? I lost my crochet oomph. Making little items wasn't really grabbing my attention and I felt I needed something a bit larger with lots of repetitive rows. Once again, an Attic 24 pattern came to mind - Lucy's stripy bag. Here's one I made a few years ago which I use all the time.

I chose lots of bright, fresh colours - a real mix with the dominant colour a lovely cherry red.

Feeling very excited at the prospect of a new project I chose my colours. I wanted to capture the colours of late summer, now that the colours are jewel-like. The old gold will be the main colour and for me it's the colour of cornfields and harvests. The deep mauve is the heather-clad moors at this time of year, the dark pink the colour of fuchsias and dark geraniums. The orange is the colour of bright nasturtiums and calendulas, and the green the soft colour of their leaves. Finally I wanted a deep blue for late summer skies and warm nights. I'm still not convinced about this royal blue and may swap it for something more azure. This bag will use up some of my stash of cotton yarn, and it's mainly Rico Creative Cotton, but there's some Twilley's Freedom Sincere and some Rowan Handknit Cotton too.

I lit my Wild Gorse scented candle (one of my birthday presents last year) and settled down to make a circle for the base of the bag.

It grew quite quickly, and I'm loving doing it. I'd love to start a blanket, but after my incredibly slow progress with J's university blanket last year I think I'll stick to something more manageable for the time being.

While we are in my shed I thought I'd show you around a bit. Here's my seasonal noticeboard made from a piece of cardboard, gingham fabric, cotton tape and split pins. I change what's on it to reflect the seasons. At the moment there's lots of purply lavender and heather colours. The little artificial thistle and heather corsage at the top is a souvenir from our several holidays to Edinburgh when the children were younger. We used to take them to the Fringe festival and enjoy exploring the city and surrounding area too. We hope we'll go back one year soon.

Here are some honesty seed pods which I grew this year and am drying. I'm hoping they'll go a lovely silvery white, but it's not looking promising. Despite that, they're very pretty as their colour fades.

This little set of wire shelves lived in the kitchen until its refit and now I'm using it in my shed. I've got all sorts of pots, jars and knick-knacks on it and a summery retro ice lollies postcard too.

I always harvest our lavender and dry it. Here it is waiting for me to strip the flowers from the stalks and store it in bags, ready to use. Aaah, the smell!

I have a collection of seaside things on my desk. A small jar of seaglass (I have a couple of small boxes of it, collected from many beaches over many years), some sand, smooth pebbles,

and a few wonderful striped cockle shells from Zeeland this summer. I have plans for these.

And here's my bright collection of knitting needles and a little textile pot which I crocheted from yarn made from recycled saris.

I hope you've enjoyed being out in the shed with me. I've loved showing you around my creative little space. It's been good to have the company - do drop in again. With a week to go before I'm back at work, I'm going to sit down and make those curtains now. Perhaps that rain might even ease a bit...